News Broadcasting
Has RK Singh departed from Zee & the Essel Group?
The rumour mill has gone into overdrive again at Subhash Chandra’s corporate offices. The grapevine has it that RK Singh, chief executive, Playwin Infrawest, Essel Group, has left the company as of yesterday.
It is not clear what exactly the circumstances of his leaving involved, but when contacted, Singh, who is in Chandigarh at the moment, would only say that he is on leave.
Singh joined Zee Telefilms in September 1999 replacing Vijay Jindal as CEO. He came on board Zee from ESPN Software where he was CEO. In December 2000, after AT Kearney submitted its report on restructuring the organisation, Singh was made group head of corporate services.
His tenure there was however, shortlived as five months later Sandeep Goyal joined the organisation as Zee group broadcasting CEO. Singh was subsequently put in charge of new Essel Group company Playwin Infravest – closely held by Chandra and members of his family – which marked the group’s entry into the online lottery business.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
